Monday, June 18, 2007

This is sickening. A Hennepin County (Minnesota) Attorney's Office employee is accused of selling sensitive information about crime victims and may have compromised the safety of undercover officers.

So often when victims talk about being afraid to tell the authorities what happened to them or talk about being too scared to give contact information to the authorities, people call them paranoid or flat out delusional.

When there is discussion of possible wrongdoing within a DA's office or law enforcement, it's always focused on the harm that can be done to defendants. Harm done to victims doesn't seem to merit discussion.

Thankfully in this case, the potential harm wasn't ignored and a full investigation was launched. Now this employee no longer has access to sensitive records and may face criminal charges and most likely is in the process of being fired.

The employee is described by a neighbor as not being the type of person who would do this, but as with many crimes not being the type of person who would do something means they can commit those crimes with less fear of being caught.

As with many other crimes with selfish motives, it's surprising how easily some people can rationalize their actions until they convince themselves that they are doing nothing really wrong while refusing to consider the harm their actions may cause others.

Any defendants who were found not guilty as result of information they received, or actions they took based on that information, cannot be retried. I hope, however, that those who bought confidential information can at least be charged with a crime for that act and any criminal acts they took related to the information they bought.

About Abyss2hope

Abyss2hope is centered on date rape, but isn't limited to discussing crimes which can be described this way since the causes and attitudes related to date rape are interconnected with domestic violence and other types of sexual violence.

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